Angelology: A Novel (Angelology Series) [Paperback]

Danielle Trussoni (Author)

Book Description

Release date: February 22, 2011 | Series: Angelology Series

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A thrilling epic about an ancient clash reignited in our time-between a secret society and heaven's darkest creatures.

--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. A covert age-old war between angels and humans serves as the backdrop for Trussoni’s gripping tale of supernatural thrills and divine destinies. Sister Evangeline, the secretary who handles all inquiries concerning the archives of angel arcana at an upstate New York convent, receives a letter from researcher V.A. Verlaine inquiring about an unknown link between the convent and philanthropist Abigail Rockefeller dating to 1943. It turns out that the Rockefellers were interested in a legendary artifact associated with an order of fallen angels. That priceless artifact is coveted by Verlaine’s employer, Percival Grigori, a Nephilim—offspring of the union between mortal and angel parents—who will stop at nothing to retrieve it for the awesome power it will give his race over humanity. Trussoni (Falling Through the Earth) anchors this fanciful dark fantasy to a solid foundation built from Catholic church history, biblical exegesis, and apocryphal texts. Suspenseful intrigues and apocalyptic battle scenes give this complexly plotted tale a vigor and vitality all the more exciting for its intelligence. 9-city author tour. (Mar.)
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From Booklist

Through the door opened by The DaVinci Code comes Trussoni’s entry in the hugger-mugger religious-society suspense subgenre, its textured prose as seamless as the never-ending stream of prayers offered up by St. Rose Convent’s Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. In that institution, celebrated for its angelic texts, lives Sister Evangeline, who prays, tends to library matters, and has become “a creature of obedience and duty” since her father brought her there when she was 12, two years after her mother’s death. The scholar Verlaine seeks concrete evidence linking the convent to Abigail Rockefeller, and before you can say, “I found this letter,” the multilayered process of Evangeline’s transformation has begun. The story takes flight in eminently readable fashion, effortlessly folding in technical information about things angelic and the religious life. It’s hard not to enjoy the secrets unearthed and appreciate what wings are to the angels who secretly walk among us—“a symbol of their blood, their breeding, . . . their position in the community. Displaying them properly brought power and prestige.” Powerfully entertaining. --Whitney Scott --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books; Reprint edition (February 22, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143118463
• ISBN-13: 978-0143118466
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (333 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #38,892 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Danielle Trussoni is the author of'Falling Through the Earth: A Memoir,' which was the recipient of the 2006 Michener-Copernicus Society of America Award, was a BookSense pick and was one of The New York Times Ten Best Books of 2006. Her first novel "Angelology" will be published in 30 countries.
www.danielletrussoni.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

222 of 259 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Strangly appealing but very akward and confusing at the same time March 6, 2010

By Lilly Flora VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

For some reason "Angelology" caught my attention on this vine list. A whole secret sect dedicated to studying and protecting the world from the secret offspring of angels and man? Very cool. Add in some biblical references and ancient mythology and you got your story.

Or you should.

This novel revolves around the premise that there is a long standing organization of angelologists who study the angels and work against their hybrid children the Nephilim, who are constantly struggling to exert their superior place in the world by ruling humanity through any number of schemes. This organization has schools and institutions for teaching new recruits (from every religion and sphere of spiritual and secular life) and they do what they can to learn how to defeat the Nephilim and have been doing so for a long, long time.

Our story begins in 1999 at the New York Convent of St. Rose where Sister Evangeline, the twenty three year old orphaned daughter of two angelologists, has lived since she was twelve. Evangeline has blocked out most of the odd occurrences in her childhood but when a modern art scholar from NYC named Verlaine shows up in the convent archives (which boast a mass library of angelic images and texts) looking for information that the former Abbess of the convent was once in communication with Abigail Rockefeller it sparks her interest.

The letter she finds leads her to one of the eldest sisters in the convent, who tells the tale of her days as a young angelology student in Paris before WW2-and the expedition to the cave where the angels who fathered the Nephilim were cast down from heaven and imprisoned in to find the lyre of Orpheus-which both sides in the conflict believe has great power to aid their cause. This nun also studied with Evangeline's grandmother-who has written a series of letters to Evangeline to be opened when the time is right, explaining the ancient situation she finds herself in the middle of.

Verlaine doesn't know it but the man he's working for, Percival Grigori is a Nephilim-a powerful one searching for the lyre to restore his ailing heath. Verlaine has no idea angels exists at all in fact. But soon he is caught up as the angelologists, with Evangeline race to discover the hidden Lyre before the Nephilim can find it.

That's our story. The "present" parts of it take place over two days. Or less.

This could have been fascinating if anything was ever explained. The origins of angelology for example-never really mentioned. How one finds out or becomes part of this world-nada. Any kind of real history about the main characters is mostly absent too-as is any kind of information to make sense of this novel! There is just so much missing-so much description, so much information! If the concept of angelology was like-I don't know-the KKK maybe (in terms of fame) then the level of explanation might be adequate but as it the plot is barely capable of being followed. And the characters themselves are just shadows with no substance (except for the repeated mentions of Verlaine's snazzy tie and the brand of boxers he prefers.) The author does manage to convey a great sense of urgency but once you reach the end it all falls apart into a big mess. And the end! If this is not part of a planned series then it makes even less sense that I think it does.

This book hits a conundrum. There isn't enough information to explain the basic concepts but in order for there to be enough there would have to be several, much longer, books. Maybe a series that starts at the beginning or has a flashback system that makes more sense than the one big block of past in the middle of the book.

Frankly I'm lost. I enjoyed the overall concept (which I don't understand very well), liked parts of the book (but was incredibly frustrated by their lack of detail and sense of weight) and am stuck with an overall feeling that there are huge sections of this novel floating around in the either which could bring it all together and make it better (not that it wouldn't help the constant clichés when it comes to any kind of relationship involved) and more readable.

I hate giving bad reviews. Especially to first time authors. I didn't like this book but I was absorbed by it. I can see why someone would buy the movie rights to the concept (congrats to the author by the way) but I don't see how this, as is, could be a movie. Overall this book I think, was just too ambitious for it's limitations (especially page length) and that made the whole thing awkward and confusing yet strangely appealing.

Two stars.

129 of 156 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Gossip Girl for armchair theologians March 15, 2010

By simone

Format:Hardcover

This was such a great idea. It's a shame that the book is so horribly written. Some suspension of disbelief is required for fiction, but "Angelology" requires the literary equivalent of the Brooklyn Bridge. The characters act like they're such unfathomable idiots - a secret organization studying angels uses ANGEL for its cars license plates! they have the most important of meetings in an apartment their opponents know about! someone with a Ph.D. in art history does not know that "ex" is "from" in Latin! - that it is impossible to believe that any plot they engaged in could succeed. The characters also have only emotionally matured to about the level of the average fourteen year old. Their "does s/he like me?" musings are just as boring in this book as they are in real life. Maybe some day someone will write an interesting book about interactions between humans and angels, but this sure isn't it.

70 of 83 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars neither plot nor characters are compelling, often clunky and contrived March 20, 2010

By B. Capossere TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

I'm really trying to find something positive to say about Danielle Trussoni's Angelology, but to be honest, I really can't think of much of anything. Which means this will be a pretty quick review as I'm not much of a fan of belaboring why a bad book is a bad book (realizing of course that "bad" is pretty subjective).
Angelology is the first book in a series detailing the ongoing battle that has raged since the time of Noah between the "Nephilim" (a hybrid race of angels/humans) and humanity. The Nephilim arose when a group of angels--the Watchers--mated with human women. For this, they were imprisoned by God in a deep cavern. The Nephilim, however, remained and at first pretty much enslaved mankind, then when God wiped the Earth clean, one of them snuck aboard the Ark, allowing the race to continue, though now they dominated humanity more behind the scenes as kings and queens and aristocrats, then as the wealthy elite or politically powerful (for instance, they were behind the Nazis). Because the Nephilim, for some reason, have continued to mate with humans, they've tainted their line and are diminishing as a race and individually via sickness. Move to present time and a young nun, Sister Evangeline, who ends up involved in modern day plots by the Nephilim to cure themselves and return to domination and the Angelologists--the group of humans who have opposed them for millennia (Madame Curie, Augustine, and lots of other really famous people). Along with following Evangeline, we flash back to the 1930's and a group of Angelologists that includes Evangeline's grandmother.
The plot is excessively convoluted and often simply fails to make sense. Not in "what is happening" fashion but in the "why is this happening" way. Time and again one finds oneself saying "but wouldn't . . . " or "couldn't they just have . . . " Too many events seem arbitrary, too many motivations are muddy, too many situations are complex for complexity's sake (complexity often highlighted by the often too-simple resolutions that follow).
The mythology and backstories are offered up in clunky exposition--characters reminisce over events in convenient narrative, chronological fashion; lecture (literally) other characters. ask questions they already know the answers to, conveniently overhear expository conversation, read letters and journals.
Few of the characters are compelling; Evangeline is especially weak which is too bad since she carries much of the book. Her male cohort, Verlaine, is equally pale. As for the "villain"--the Nephilim Percival Grigori--it's hard to even think of him as such as because he's so inept. The Nephilim veer from allegedly terrifyingly powerful creatures to the bad guys in Home Alone. When the "big battle" is a group of near-angels taking on a convent of nuns, and the near-angels lose in the space of a few sentences, you know you're in some narrative trouble. The exception is the WWII flashback with Evangeline's grandmother and her rival Celestine (one of the nuns)--here the characters are more alive, though this is tainted both by characters being implausibly oblivious and uncommunicative and by that same clunky exposition.
The book tries to turn into a puzzle quest at the near-end, but it moves solely between absurdly arcane/elaborate and absurdly simple. Afterward, it closes with one of the most muddy and anti-climactic confrontations I've read.
In the end, Angelology falls far short in nearly every element: character, plot, premise, etc. Trussoni has written an acclaimed memoir, but the move to fiction appears to have been a move too far, at least with her first novel. Not recommended